Behind the Curtains of
Indian Animation
by the Students
from the Animation Workshop, Viborg, Denmark
When,
as animation students, we think about animation around the world,
we immediately think of the big studios in the USA and Japan...or
the individual artists in Great Britain, Canada and Central Europe.
But, what about India? In our total ignorance, we didn't even know
that there could be animation in that part of the world. Had any
of us ever heard about the Unilazer Group? RM-USL
or Ram Mohan? Not really... So, when we were given the chance
of an apprenticeship at RM-USL Animation in Mumbai, it was a real
opportunity. In our minds, the classic image of India, with its
temples, elephants and traditions, was in total contrast to the
animation industry, in which we had begun one year ago. Discovering
all of this was too much of a temptation to be missed, and so the
trip began. The only information we knew on our way there, were
our references from AWN.
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In
front of the studio. All photos
© Yaprak Morali and Simon Sonnichsen.
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Our Opportunity
The director of our school, Morten Thorning, met RM-USL's studio
manager, Alice Manuel, during the 1999 Annecy Festival in France.
Here the idea started that some of the students from The Animation
Workshop in Denmark, could go to the Mumbai studio for an apprenticeship.
The aim was to open the Indian studio to international cultures,
and we were a good way to present Western animation. We spent time
with animators, clean-up and layout artists discussing and comparing
our styles and working methods.
The Unilazer Group is situated in the most Westernized town in India,
Mumbai, the center of the Indian movie industry. With their Chairman,
Ronnie Screwvala, United Television, or UTV, is involved with TV
series, advertisements, in-flight programming, movie distribution,
post-production and dubbing facilities, where movies like The
Phantom Menace and Disney's Tarzan were dubbed into Hindi.
On the ground and second floor of the Unilazer building stands RM-USL
Animation, established in 1997. Its President, Ram Mohan, is a great
figure in Indian and Asian animation. He has worked with many foreign
companies, including creating the character design for the Japanese
animated feature Ramayana, produced by Yugo Sako. In the
past two years, the studio has already produced series for UNICEF,
Saban/Fox and Ciné-Groupe. About 150-200 people work there.
Most of the artists are art school graduates with excellent drawing
skills.
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On
our first day at the studio, they took us out to a restaurant.
Clockwise, from front left: Jonathan Rollins (student); Alice
Manuel (studio manager); Snjiv, partially hidden behind Rollins,
(head of animaton); Simon Sonnichsen (student); Yaprak Morali
(student); Karen Molin (student); and Ram Mohan's son, Ram
Mohan.
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While we were there, the studio was working
on the second season of Bad Dog, a co-production project
between Saban/Fox and Ciné-Groupe, for worldwide release.
At the same time, they started concept development on their original
series, Me and Meetoo, an adventure series about a 10 year-old
boy and his sidekick, a vegetarian vampire.
A Great Time of Learning
All of this was very profitable for both sides. In fact, we
had never seen how a pre-produced animation was made before. This
means of mass-production is a far cry from the "Disney feature
style" that we had been learning about at school. On the other
hand, this type of animation is spread all over the world, and it
is the way most companies finance their own feature films. This
was an excellent way for us to see this process, before reaching
the working market. Plus, as most of the artists in the studio were
great Disney fans, they were very interested in our knowledge.
